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Look at the bright side.. Africa has hyenas.
yep and them bastards will laugh at you while they eat you!
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Look at the bright side.. Africa has hyenas.
Wow that's impressive. Thanks for posting
I'll say this and leave it at that! I see all sides of the story and agree with things on both sides.
I do know this if I see one I'm not going to assume he's friendly. My guess is they are hunting and I'm dinner so I will leave with a couple new rugs for the man cave!
I mean get me two,
Yep, these are just average german shepherd sized, harmless, live-and-let-live, doggies:I disagree with a lot of what has been said here as I think it defines wolves by their extremes rather than their normal behavior.
I'll be lazy and use Wikipedia as a source, apologizing ahead of time, but for example with regards to the "200 lb. wolves":
Of course those are averages; there is always some sort of distribution or curve, and outliers. I have anecdotally heard about 175 lb. wolves and seen pictures to match, but you can also root around and find 400 lb. humans. These are the exceptions, not the rule. I don't think there are whole packs of 200 lb. wolves out there, or at least I haven't seen any credible evidence of it. FWIW, I have also lived in British Columbia and I haven't seen any notable differences in the wolves there, although there is a theory that they increase in size (even within a species) in proportion with distance from the equator.
- The gray wolf averages 85-99 lbs
- The yukon wolf averages 97-111 lbs
- Even the extinct dire wolf only averaged around 150 lbs
Likewise with the behavior. Having lived with malamutes and having been involved with a wolf rescue, wolves also have an entirely different side to them than simply being aggressive. In certain company they can be very kind and playful, family (pack) oriented animals, and their behavior can be very similar to northern breeds of dogs. That isn't to say that they would make good pets, but if you have lived with a dog, wolves will exhibit many of the same traits of love and loyalty to each other that you enjoy from Fido. They are extremely intelligent animals, and it is a great thing to observe.
That also isn't to say that wolves are all fun and games. Wolves have two very different sides to them, depending on whether they are aggressive towards you or not, and that just depends on the situation. I wouldn't want to be in front of a pack of angry wolves just as much as I wouldn't want to be in front of a pack of angry anything -- two legs or four. Simply put though, wolf attacks are also statistically rare, especially in North America. So rare that they can be cataloged in a relatively small table. You will note that most of these attacks take place in Russia where the density of wolves is substantially higher than anything seen in North America. The relatively few wolves that we have here (after the U.S. Government sponsored genocide up through the 1960s) are nothing close to what exists in Russia, so I don't think it would be fair to draw any parallels to the futures of wolf recovery. In the Pacific Northwest, they are simply coming back from the very brink of (human caused) extinction.
What it comes down to is this:
Wolves and humans were historically in conflict for the same food sources. Humans tended (and still do tend) herds of domesticated livestock that were/are an opportune source of food for wolves; wolves, like any other animal, need to eat, and so they do. Given the one tool at their disposal -- biting -- kills aren't necessarily going to be pretty either. They don't make clean, sanitary, one shot kills, but they don't have access to the same tools that the other two or four legged predators use to do this.
I think it's relatively disingenuous to sensationalize the visual process of them killing. What it really comes down to is that they're in competition with humans for food, and humans don't seem to take that very well.
Anyone can certainly beat the drum of the apex predator and claim that humans have a right to kill anything that competes with them or gets in their way. That's an approach, obviously one which some people embrace. However I don't think it is the only approach, or honestly, morally supportable. I don't think it jives with the respect that humans show for each others' lives, but somehow fail to extend beyond the boundaries of their species. With human ingenuity and modern tools and technology, I'd hope that people could rise above an approach of "they ate our food, let's bubblegum them up."
Just as background, I'm not a city dweller. I don't currently live in wolf territory, but we do have cougars and black bears around here on a regular basis and I carry a 12 ga. or a .45-70 to protect myself when I'm out alone. I'm at least moderately familiar with the danger of co-existing with predators. I also wouldn't mind living in an area with wolves. I will willingly put my money where my mouth is. I think there is a lot more tangible risk, by orders of magnitude, walking around with all the junkies, street kids, and Black Lives rioters in downtown PDX. It's an interesting point of comparison, though, that nobody would seriously suggest an eradication program for them, right?
Yep, these are just average german shepherd sized, harmless, live-and-let-live, doggies:
View attachment 430655 View attachment 430656 View attachment 430657
And it's not trick photography.HOLY bubblegumING bubblegum!! THOSE ARE HUGE!
And it's not trick photography.
Yeah let's wait until there's a whole bunch more of them,...
List of wolf attacks in North America - Wikipedia
'Super pack' of 400 wolves kill 30 horses in just four days in remote Russian village | Daily Mail OnlineBTW -
I'm kinda calling BS on this in certain ways.....sled/pack dogs even if "domesticated" arent push-overs even if the anchor is down...... they will fight and they will def. kill..... and much more aggressively than our domesticated ones (even trained ones)....b/c they have pack mentality....and "owner love"....something must have happened VERY strangely for the wolves to kill a big animal (a human) and then fight two more (humans) with two sled teams and gun a blazing.....and all they found were the human remains and 16 wolf carcasses....no dogs? highly suspect (but thats why you cant use wiki for real college dissertations; anyone can write) 16 wolves killed.......packs dont get "huge" b/c the wolf order breaks down, they become combat ineffective. JMO....10-15 is maxing out efficiency and to take on 2 sled teams and locked and pi$$ed loaded hunters (unless they were really drunk) should have the upper hand....but i've been wrong before
View attachment 430665
And if you had checked the citations in the Wiki article, you'd know you're wrong this time.BTW -
I'm kinda calling BS on this in certain ways.....sled/pack dogs even if "domesticated" arent push-overs even if the anchor is down...... they will fight and they will def. kill..... and much more aggressively than our domesticated ones (even trained ones)....b/c they have pack mentality....and "owner love"....something must have happened VERY strangely for the wolves to kill a big animal (a human) and then fight two more (humans) with two sled teams and gun a blazing.....and all they found were the human remains and 16 wolf carcasses....no dogs? highly suspect (but thats why you cant use wiki for real college dissertations; anyone can write) 16 wolves killed.......packs dont get "huge" b/c the wolf order breaks down, they become combat ineffective. JMO....10-15 is maxing out efficiency and to take on 2 sled teams and locked and pi$$ed loaded hunters (unless they were really drunk) should have the upper hand....but i've been wrong before
Best post of the whole bunch! Now that the liberal wolf-huggers have been smoked out...how do you feel about sea lions? Like the guy said earlier - we should leave them alone until they become a problem....whoops, too late!I am anti-wolf because liberals love them!?!?!?!?!?
Sheldon
Best post of the whole bunch! Now that the liberal wolf-huggers have been smoked out...how do you feel about sea lions? Like the guy said earlier - we should leave them alone until they become a problem....whoops, too late!